It appears there is strong competition between South Korean giants LG and Samsung to take stride in smartphone designs. It was Samsung which announced first Galaxy Round smartphone with 5.7 inch display, but has not officailly launched it yet. As per unconfirmed sources, Samsung is still testing it and will start rolling out this device in the beginning of 2014. However, LG has trumped Samsung on this aspect and officially launched the world’s first curved smartphone – LG G Flex and it will start selling in India by the first week of February.
At an event in New Delhi on 11th December, LG unveiled ther innovative and uniquely designed LG G Flex smartphone, but did not disclose its price. However, the company gave a hint that it will be priced in the range of Rs. 65,000, and the final price will be announced close on the heels of its availability, which is February,2014.
Assuming that the G Flex is priced around Rs. 63,5000, the question arises whether there will be good number of takers of this device? We have been asked by our readers and friends about the acceptance of G Flex at this price. Our response to them is that initially, the new technology is always expensive to start with, and in due course of time, the price will come down a little bit. Moreover, this smartphone with curved display will catch the imagination of those gadgets freaks, who are in the habit of flaunting new device whenever the same is available, irrespctive of its cost and usability. There is no dearth of such rich and trendy freaks in this one billion plus people in this country. LG must have taken this aspect in consideration before announcing their new technology marvel in India.
Besides the argument of high price, the G Flex has many features which will be appreciated by the customers and they won’t hesitate to shelve out the high price to get possession of this device. We share some innovative features, which we experienced at the launch event :
Compared to the current array of flat smrtphones, the vertically curved design of the LG G Flex reduces the distance between one’s mouth to the microphone when the device is held against the ear. This design definitely result in improved voice and sound quality. The curved design and large size of the smartphone becaue of its 6 inch display does not hinder one’s grip on this device. Moreover, in landscape mode, the display offers a cinematic experience, with the result being the most comfortable viewing angle for watching videos or playing games. But because of its large display, one will not feel comfortable to use it for longer duration with one hand.
As with innovative design of LG G2 which has Rear Key, this feature is also incoporated in G Flex. The G Flex is also devoid of any buttons on the sides. The LG G Flex also has Double Tap feature to unlock and even lock the smartphone. We tested this feature on G Flex and it worked wonderfully without any hitch.
The other main and notable feature of G Flex is its flexible design. One can press this smartphone from the back lightly and it will go flat and if you remove your hands from the flat device, it comes into its original shape. This flexibility is the first step for the futuristic bendable smartphones. But the moot question is why one would have to make this Flexible device flat and whether the frequently doing so, will not damage the device? This will become clearer in due course of time.
The G Flex is equipped with powerful 13MP rear camera and a 2.1-megapixel front camera. Because of paucity of time, we could not test the performance of the camera in low-light conditions, but its results in day-light conditions were excellent. Its front camera is good for video calling.
For other hardware details, please read http://www.techvorm.com/lg-g-flex-will-available-india-feb-2014-approx-rs-65k/
The LG G Flex is the first smartphone, which comes with “Self Healing” coating on the back cover. We could not test this feature with the demo unit, but it appears that the elastic coating has the ability to recover from the daily wear-and-tear scratches.
The G Flex also incorporates multi-tasking function known as Q Slide function, and a new “Dual Window”, which enables you to use two apps at the same time in the partitioned screen. You are required to touch and hold the back button to use the Dual Window feature.
We cannot comment yet about the performance of this new device unless we use this for quite sometime. At the first sight and after brief usuage, the G Flex looks attractive and interesting device. We shall carry out the detailed review when we receive the device from LG and share our opinion with you, which we assume would be in February when this device becomes available in India. Till then, keep guessing!
